I walked to office today, and there was this huge huge dust storm all around.
I really don't know where so much dust came from...as if someone had put me straight into a scene from Interstellar - the one before the discovery of the new planet - dust everywhere and people trying to flee it - trying to escape the dust storm.
Yes, this was just like it.
Yes, I will call it a dust storm.
Dust - EVERYWHERE.
Dust - that refuses to settle. Dust - that clouds your vision. Dust - on your face even if you wrap your thickest scarf as tight as you can. Dust - that you can taste as you run a tongue across dry lips. Dust - you can breathe and smell. Dust - in your hair. Dust - under your feet. Dust that refuses to settle - all around you.
And I thought however wrong/right the Interstellar folks may have been in their imagination of colonizing a new planet - surely their idea of the "End of the Earth" was spot on.
Dust - that signifies a dying Earth. Dust that refuses to settle down. No matter how hard you try to keep it off, always finding a way to cloud over people and stuff.
Dust - that covers even the last slivers of hope. Dust - that threatens Life. Dust - its teeny weeny particles showing their might - uncontrollable - haunting every thought; washing over everything like waves.
Dust - that never settles.
As I made my way through the dust clouds, I thought that if there ever is an "End of the Earth", this definitely will be one of the characteristics...dust - that refuses to settle.
~~
As soon as I unlock the door and step in, a loud gushing noise screams for my attention. I hurriedly go into the kitchen - only to land in ankle deep water - the kitchen tap is running wildly and (open since God knows when - buckets of good clean water - literally gone down the drain) I sigh...
It takes me quite a while to mop and drain away the excess water.
...And as I scrub and slosh at the water over and over again - the irony hits me - I feel as if I am washing away the dust - as if this was a way to literally "dust off" the dust - the dust that refuses to settle - perhaps it is powerless in front of gushing splashes of water.
~~
I do hope if there ever is a "dying Earth" and dust storms, may there also be slashing rains and splashes of cool blue water to counter it - washing the dust away.
And may the water win, over the dust that refuses to settle.
Amen.
